He twisted the wand, cloaking him in shadows, and her pulse sped up, as if a hummingbird were trapped in her throat. He slunk to the next set and closed them, then opened the front door long enough to flip the sign to ‘closed’ before shutting it once more, locking it, and pocketing the key.
Kenna swallowed, snatching her bag off the floor, on her feet faster than she could blink. “I can take a hint. I’ll head out.”
The corner of his mouth twitched as he shut the second to last set of blinds. “You’re not going anywhere. Sit.”
Slowly, she lowered herself back into the chair. Her bag’s strap slid off her shoulder and it dropped to the ground.
He closed the final set and a veil of darkness fell over the room. She could only identify his outline but that was menacing enough as he stalked toward her.
His arms locked around her middle and she stayed stiff as a corpse until he lifted her onto the reception desk. Stillness ruled the dark. His steady breathing. Her thundering heart.
“We had a full afternoon.”
The same sense of dread as when she’d found the box overtook her. But Kenna wasn’t new to feeling threatened in his presence. “Had?”
“I called and rescheduled their appointments.”
“Why?”
One-word responses weren’t her style but she was doing all she could to maintain a calm exterior. Meanwhile, a bevy of nails scraped at her skin.
He took a step closer, fingers ghosting across her cheek. “I thought we could benefit from some alone time.”
“We see each other almost every day.”
“The girl I’ve been seeing may as well be a lobotomy victim. Where’s your beautiful mind run off to?”
His palms slid up her thighs and she cursed herself for wearing a dress. Every ounce of breath fled Kenna’s lungs as his thumbs dug into her flesh and she thought, once again, of those phantom nails tearing through her muscles and carving into her bones.
“Dayton.” She meant to stop him but it came out more suggestive than she’d intended.
Her stinging skin called out to some hidden part of herself. It was as if she’d been asleep all her life, waiting to be awoken by his burning, bruising touch.
She knew it was wrong to take pleasure in their intimacy. She shouldn’t have coveted him, worked for him, spoken to him. Light once shone from the hole where she’d tumbled but now there was only darkness. Escaping was no longer a possibility. Survival, essential.
For she was doomed to love him.
“I know you’ve been faking it lately, lamb.” A chill coiled around her spine as Dayton dragged his lips along her neck, up to her ear, whispering, “Disingenuous is a word I never would’ve associated with you when you stepped into my office last winter.”
“A lot’s changed since then. I’ve changed.”
“Yet you remain hopelessly naive.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He caught her earlobe between his teeth and pulled it before migrating to her neck once more. Kenna shut her eyes in an attempt to muster some resolve but all hope was lost as his thumb slowly traced an imaginary seam along the center of her underwear before he backtracked and produced tiny, teasing circles. “You’re looking so hard, you’re blinded by what’s right in front of you. Things are much more simple than you’d like to believe.” His words were flames licking her neck as his thumb applied greater pressure and she breathed in steadily through her nose, fighting to remain clearheaded while ignoring the heat raging low in her abdomen, like liquid mercury. “Oh, but you grew up sheltered and as a result, you are relentlessly paranoid. Who is this man? What has he done with these poor women? That’s something I love about you. You have to assign such meaning to everything.”
A blinding white pain shot through Kenna as his teeth sank into her neck with jarring force. The sound that fled from her lips equally indicated her arousal and shock. Whatever will she once possessed to escape was extracted as Dayton’s teeth remained connected to her, sucking the delicate skin.
“Stop.”
Her whisper was static, lost amid their breathing, and he did not oblige the request. His greedy mouth migrated to an unmarked patch of skin and his thick fingers tore at her underwear.
“I saidstop.” She repeated with greater force. Her hand shot out and, startled by her own strength, she seized his wrist. “Maybe you’ve played games with everyone else but that’s not going to work with me.”
Dayton smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. They remained pitch black. No glimmer of light.
“No, darling. I’m finished with games. You’re the fucking prize.”